Kerry Kittles

For those fans at Gampel Pavilion tonight, clutch those Villanova-UConn tickets and plan on finding a special place back home to display them. You are the lucky ones because you'll be watching Kerry Kittles and Ray Allen up close. Kittles, a 6-foot-5 senior shooting guard, was the Big East player of the year and the most valuable player of the Big East tournament last season. He was the coaches' preseason choice in November to be the Big East player of the year. Allen, a 6-foot-5 junior shooting guard, was named the 1995 USA Basketball male athlete of the year after averaging 15.6 points for the gold medal team in the World University Games.

Two free throws by Randy Foye. Two free throws by Mike Nardi. Take your choice. If either Foye or Nardi had made their free throws in the final 38 seconds against No. 9 Boston College on Wednesday, Villanova would have avoided a 67-66 loss. If that had happened, the Wildcats would be the most talked about team in college basketball this week. If that had happened, Villanova would have had one of the most incredible weeks in school history, knocking off two of the remaining four undefeated teams in Division I basketball.

With his team in something of a post-championship funk, Pistons coach Larry Brown has spent the better part of this season wondering what has gone wrong. The Pistons, made of mostly the same players who defeated the Lakers in the Finals, have not resembled the air-tight group of last summer. All the little things his players did so well, they have failed to do this season. The result? Mediocrity. But that's beginning to change. Detroit has won five in a row and is closing in on first-place Cleveland.

It's a Big East numbers game When No. 3 UConn plays No. 4 Villanova Sunday at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, it will be the first game in 11 years between a pair of Big East teams ranked in the Top 5. The last time was at the 1985 Final Four in Lexington, Ky., where No. 1 Georgetown defeated No. 3 St. John's 77-59 in a national semifinal. "We've told our players we have a chance to catch [UConn] and it's in our hands," Villanova coach Steve Lappas said Thursday, before the NCAA announced it was suspending Kerry Kittles for the final three regular season games because of the unauthorized use of a university telephone credit card number.

Ray Allen woke up Monday morning ready to play basketball, ready to go against Kerry Kittles, and ready to exact some revenge against a Villanova team that made life miserable for UConn twice last season. Then he looked out his apartment window. "That was one of the biggest heartaches I've ever had," Allen said. "I sat in my apartment watching the snow fall and all I could think was that nobody was going to come to this game." As it turned out, UConn fans had no option.

Do they have Plan C? The New Jersey Nets need to come up with something quickly or the NBA championship will reside in San Antonio. The Spurs lead the best-of-seven finals 3-2 and can close out the series tonight at the SBC Center. Game 7 would also be in San Antonio on Wednesday. The Nets went into the Finals flush from dominating the Eastern Conference playoffs, winning 10 consecutive games with a running, scrambling style that Milwaukee, Boston and Detroit could not keep up with.

As the crowd stood and roared in anticipation of a fourth quarter that would furnish the undeniable truths about this series, Jason Kidd glanced up at the FleetCenter scoreboard. Nets 70. Celtics 69. With 12 minutes remaining in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, the game was on the line, the series was on the line, indeed, a season was on the line. This was no time for the weak of character. This was no time to make excuses. The only gray area was on the uniforms of the road team.

No boasts or big talk from the Celtics after a subdued practice Thursday. It's looking bad for them, though they won't admit it. A loss tonight in Game 6 at the FleetCenter would end their season. "Ain't too much to talk about," Kenny Anderson said. "I'm not going to be loquacious. This is it. This is last call. Just gotta take care of business." The Celtics haven't done that since they put themselves in the NBA record book by erasing a 26-point deficit to win Game 3. It's not just that the Nets have a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals -- it's the way they're doing it. The Nets are double-teaming Paul Pierce, who is averaging 25.6 points instead of the 37 he averaged in the four regular season games against New Jersey.

The Celtics reached back one more time for a little of that comeback magic Wednesday night. But the only comeback they completed was the long, lonely one home to Boston. Now, they face another comeback to save their season. The Nets gave the Celtics a front-row view of the abyss, beating them 103-92 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Two games after the worst fourth-quarter collapse in NBA playoff history, the Nets lead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, with the Celtics needing a victory Friday night at the FleetCenter to extend their remarkable turnaround season.

Rod Thorn was still making the transition from the front office of the NBA to president/general manager of the New Jersey Nets when he made a summer trip to Puerto Rico that would ultimately change the fortunes of one of basketball's least successful franchises. "I had always been a fan of his, but when I attended the [2000] Olympic training camp in Puerto Rico, I saw what Jason Kidd could do. He was a catalyst among great players. Everybody wanted to play with him. I didn't think he could do all that [immediately]

Less than two months ago, it appeared Leonard Hamilton might be in his final season as Miami's basketball coach. Thursday, he was introduced as Big East coach of the year. Miami's turnaround, from 0-18 in the conference last season to 9-9, obviously convinced the Big East coaches to select Hamilton over UConn's Jim Calhoun or Villanova's Steve Lappas, who led their teams to first and second place in the Big East. Villanova swingman Kerry Kittles, who led the Big East in scoring with a 23.2 average, was voted player of the year.

Nearly 10 months have passed since Villanova defeated UConn in the championship game of the Big East tournament. When it comes to recalling the disappointment of that moment, the Huskies say the memories are fresh. "Personally, that was the worst feeling," senior forward Rudy Johnson said Sunday. "I'd never lost to the same team two times in a row since I've been here. That's something that never should have happened. "Everyone in the locker room feels like we owe them. There hasn't been a lot of talk about it. We just know we have a job to do. This team has a little pride.

The end of 2001's biggest surprise: the Nets are legitimate and Jason Kidd is even better than you thought. Involved in a race for first place in the Atlantic Division with the Celtics, New Jersey has more depth and better long-term prospects than the revived Kelly Greens. When the Nets swapped Stephon Marbury for Kidd in the off-season, the deal looked like one of those "you take mine, I'll take yours" trades that characterize pro sports. Marbury hadn't galvanized the Nets on his return to his home area, while Kidd's domestic problems last season made him expendable in Phoenix.